Posts Tagged ‘Cadillac sedan’

Despite solid reviews, sales of the Cadillac CT6 haven't lived up to expectations.

Cadillac will pair back its existing sedan line-up to no more than two models, while eliminating coupes and shifting focus to utility vehicles, according to the brand’s global chief Johann de Nysschen.

That appears to confirm a report last year by TheDetroitBureau.com that said the brand was getting major pushback from parent General Motors in light of slow sales growth and the overall shift in the luxury market from passenger cars to SUVs and crossovers.

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“We have to rebalance our sedan portfolio,” de Nysschen told the Reuters news service in an interview. The Cadillac chief previously refuted a report by this publication outlining Cadillac’s shift in product focus.

The Cadillac CT6 makes its official debut the night before the opening of the 2015 NY Auto Show.

With the official unveiling of its new CT6 sedan, Cadillac is setting out to “reinvent the premium luxury segment, global president Johan de Nysschen declared Tuesday evening. But the debut of the big sedan is also about reinventing the once-dominant Cadillac brand itself.

In the works since late 2009, shortly after parent General Motors emerged from bankruptcy, the Cadillac CT6 will go up against some of the world’s toughest competitors, vehicles such as the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, BMW 7-Series and Audi A8. But Caddy officials insist they went to play the game on their own terms as they begin an $8 billion product program that will more than double the breadth of the brand’s current line-up.

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The process began with the debut of the small ATS and mid-range CTS, and now moves to the premium segment where Caddy hasn’t been a significant player in years. “The challenge, us to reinvent the large luxury segment, a category Cadillac once called its own,” said de Nysschen, during a preview ahead of the official opening of the New York Auto Show.

Cadillac's new twin-turbo V-6 was designed to deliver plenty of power while maximizing mileage.

When Cadillac’s first car rolled out in 1902 it was powered by a single-cylinder motor making a whopping 10 horsepower. You can expect five more cylinders and a lot more muscle under the hood when the new Caddy CT6 debuts at the New York Auto Show next week.

Among the various powertrains the new flagship sedan will be offered with, Cadillac plans to offer a pair of new V-6s, including a 3.0-liter twin-turbo package that will balance performance and fuel-economy thanks to technologies such as displacement-on-demand and engine Stop/Start.

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“With nearly zero turbo lag and a commensurately low-inertia rotating assembly, this engine climbs the rpm ladder and produces power on demand,” said Chief Engineer Rich Bartlett. “Its performance is more than just the maximum output – it’s how it is delivered and the new 3.0L Twin Turbo delivers it with smoothness and precision.”

Cadillac will call its new flagship the CT6, while it begins to adopt a new naming plan for future products.

Cadillac is adding a significant detail to the various headlines it has made over the last two weeks, announcing that its planned flagship sedan will be emblazoned with the name, CT6 – not to be confused with the midrange Cadillac CTS.

The latest news follows up on Caddy’s confirmation it will be moving its headquarters to NYC in the near future as part of an effort to come in closer with the sort of luxury car buyers it hopes to win over to the struggling brand. Word of the flagship sedan was first revealed by General Motors CEO Mary Barra earlier this month. But, as TheDetroitBureau.com reported this week, new Cadillac brand boss Johan de Nysschen is giving strong consideration to a model that would rise even higher into the luxury spectrum.

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As for the CT6, “This Cadillac will be the lightest and most agile car in the class of top-level large luxury sedans,” said Travis Hester, the project’s executive chief engineer. “Using the lessons learned from our dynamic ATS and CTS product lines, we have developed an entirely new vehicle architecture for the CT6. It will employ a mixed material philosophy that combines the best and most efficient components optimized for each area of this new top-of-the-range car.”

The new flagship is expected to show the strong influence of the Cadillac Elmiraj concept coupe.

Cadillac will fill a long-open gap in its line-up when it launches production of an all-new flagship sedan late next year, the as-yet unnamed “high-technology” car set to be produced at General Motors’ “Poletown” plant in Detroit.

The new model, expected to go up against the likes of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, BMW 7-Series and Audi A8, is expected to introduce the new Super Drive system GM CEO Mary Barra announced earlier this month which will allow autonomous driving on highways. The broader goal is to reposition Cadillac as a serious contender in the premium luxury market it once dominated, especially as the brand expands its global roll-out.

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“The objective for this upcoming model is to lift the Cadillac range by entering the elite class of top-level luxury cars,” said Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen. “Currently in development, this new rear wheel drive-oriented sedan uses completely new, custom-designed materials on a unique vehicle architecture.

The Vsport version of the 2014 Cadillac CTS -- shown during its NY debut -- will feature the new 420-horsepower Twin Turbo V6.

It’s been a good year, so far, for Cadillac. The new ATS compact took honors as the North American Car of the Year and, along with the equally new XTS, Caddy sales have shown the sort of momentum General Motors’ flagship brand it hasn’t seen in years.

Yet, the real story begins this week at the Big Apple’s Jacob Javits Center, where New York Auto Show Show-goers are getting their first look at the all-new 2014 Cadillac CTS. After years of trying to position the sedan in its own distinct niche, the new model is about to go head-to-head with some of the toughest competitors in the luxury market.

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“Cadillac has been on a journey the last 10 years,” since the original CTS debuted, introducing the marque’s distinctive Art & Science design language, says Cadillac Design Director Mark Adams, “And there’s no question the CTS has been the backbone of that journey.”

The next-generation Cadillac CTS will be moved more up-market from the 2013 model shown here.

The next new entry into the expanding Cadillac line-up will make its debut at next month’s New York Auto Show, officials with the General Motors division have confirmed.

The unveiling of the next-generation Caddy CTS will follow the January introduction of the ELR plug-in at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit and last year’s addition of the compact Cadillac ATS and high-line XTS models.

While the car coming to New York will replace one of Caddy’s current models, the 2014 Cadillac CTS could certainly be described as an expansion of the line-up as it is expected to be bigger, more lavish and more expensive that the outgoing sedan, taking more direct aim at the likes of the BMW 5-Series and Mercedes-Benz E-Class.

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“We are positioning that car as a step up, so there will be a marketing challenge to reposition that car,” Bob Ferguson, the new head of Cadillac, said during an interview with the Detroit Free Press. He was one of several executives with General Motors’ flagship brand to attend the annual National Automobile Dealers Association conference in Orlando, Florida over the weekend.

Another attempt to take competitors at the the heart of the Euro luxury market.

Cadillac has revealed its XTS Platinum Concept at the 2010 North American International Auto Show with much marketing hype and jargon, and barely a nod that the idea goes all the way back to the Catera of three decades ago and subsequent failed or weak forays into the European luxury segment.

XTS looks to be a more promising attempt to take on the Germans. But a lot can happen between now and next year when it will likely appear as a 2012 model.

XTS is a so-called “five meter” car, as was the Catera, about the size of current STS or just over 200 inches in overall length, once considered the the optimum size for a European luxury car before BMW and Mercedes upped the ante with super-sided S-class and 7-series behemoths.

Cadillac has for the moment apparently abandoned plans for a new generation of rear-wheel-drive cars, and the XTS is derived from GM epsilon front-drive platform. Its a cautious design that is derived from the Cadillac 16 with its styling forms adopted to the different proportions, according to Robert Lutz.

Lutz says that the arts and science form language will continue to evolve but the edge line and prominent grille are keepers. Lutz told Htxurlthat Cadillac understands the need to differentiate itself from other luxury brands, a work that is still very much in process.

As with the current Platinum Edition products, such as Escalade Platinum and the STS or DTS Platinum sedans, (all aging designs that need replacing with much more efficient and more exciting machines), XTS Platinum is over-stuffed with electronic technology, notably touch-screens that take control of vehicle systems far beyond the controversial navigation systems now common for their role in deadly driver distraction accidents.

Cadillac and other makers are betting that customers will happily abandon traditional buttons, switches and knobs for touch screens, a potentially dubious assumption given the age of Cadillac buyers and the problems with touch screens. Try one with gloves on for instance.

Nonetheless, the concept is the next generation mid-level sedan from Cadillac as GM continues internal debates about doing a huge new flagships car where in markets – such as China — it’s thought that size does matter.

In addition, in keeping with every luxury marque’s need for fuel economy credits as the 2016 35.5 mpg standard looms near, at least one version of what remains a large car will come as a plug-in hybrid.

The big sedan also will be without a V8 engine, using instead a smallish V6 powerplant, a nod to the inevitable demise of the V8 engine, which for six decades defined American automotive excellence, but now in a world of encroaching CO2 limits looks more like decadence.